World's Largest Carbon Nanotube Sheet Produced for Applications Like Shielding, Electrical Conductors and Structural Composites

Published on February 20, 2008 at 1:50 PM

Nanocomp Technologies, Inc., a
developer of next-generation performance materials, today announced it
has successfully produced 3-foot by 6-foot sheets of carbon nanotube
material. This significant production milestone, the result of the
company’s ongoing investment in nanotube growth technology
and manufacturing capacity, gives Nanocomp the ability to generate the
largest cohesive sheets of nanotube material ever produced.

At the core of Nanocomp’s process is a breakthrough
technology for continuous, high-volume output of millimeter-long,
highly pure carbon nanotubes that efficiently conduct both heat and
electricity. By bringing this technology to practice using proven,
scalable industrial processes, Nanocomp can now produce sheets of
material at contiguous sizes of tens of square feet.

Nanocomp’s materials possess a unique combination of
high strength-to-weight ratio, electrical and thermal conductivity, as
well as flame resistance that exceeds those of many other advanced
materials by orders of magnitude. The resulting material can be a
valuable addition to such applications such as electromagnetic
interference (EMI) shielding, electrical conductors, thermal
dissipation solutions, lightning protection and advanced structural
composites.

In contrast to Nanocomp’s millimeter-long nanotubes,
other carbon nanotubes are short - tens of microns long - and are
usually delivered in powder form. Short nanotubes have limited
industrial use because they are difficult to incorporate into existing
manufacturing processes and do not possess the high performance
properties of long carbon nanotubes.

“Nanocomp Technologies has made the crucial growth
step moving from research to production with the implementation of
aggressively scaled up operations to allow production of the
world’s largest sheets of carbon nanotube
material,” said Peter Antoinette, president and CEO of
Nanocomp. “This process forms the basis for our strategy to
produce value-added CNT components from unique nanomaterials.
We’re gratified at the reception our materials have received
from major industrial companies. We believe today’s news and
proof of our ability to scale up and deliver increasingly larger
volumes will be of even greater interest to Nanocomp’s
prospective customers and strategic partners.”

Mark Banash, Nanocomp’s vice president of
engineering, said: “The goal of our manufacturing scale-up
has been to product ultra-pure material in increasing quantities, with
consistency and reliability utilizing a fully automated process that
doesn’t require a Ph.D. to operate. We’re confident
that we’re going to be in a position to offer the volume,
material formats and quality that players across many industrial
markets need. By continually improving the economics and performance
characteristics of our products, we think Nanocomp is the first company
that’s going to deliver on the promise of carbon nanotube
technology.”